Watertown woman boasts huge teapot collection

Published December 11, 2013 at 2:05 pm

Marie Luptak of Watertown poses with the first teapot she ever received, from her daughter. Now, she has hundreds of teapots decorating all four walls of one room of her house. (Staff photo by Matt Bunke)

After several years of collecting, Marie Luptak found herself with a unique dilemma. The Watertown resident found herself with hundreds of teapots, and nowhere to put them.

Teapot after teapot were stored in boxes in an extra room. So Luptak decided it was finally time to do something with them all.

“It was just one big mess in here,” Luptak said of what is now her meticulously arranged teapot room. “I thought, what am I going to do with all these? Then I decided I should have a teapot party. I thought it would be fun to have some of my friends come over and look at them all.”

So Luptak began to arrange all of her estimated 300 teapots on shelves that now surround all four walls of the room. Once haphazardly thrown in boxes, the teapots are now arranged by theme, with certain shelves dedicated to animals, vegetables, specific holidays, and many more categories.

“Some of them are cute, some of them are funny,” Luptak said. “I just love them all. A lot of them are just gorgeous. I’ll probably have to get rid of them all someday, but not for awhile. I really like looking at them.”

Luptak’s collection started innocently enough, at least five years ago, she recalls. That’s when her daughter bought Luptak her first teapot.

“My daughter got me one, and that’s kind of how it started,” Luptak said. “Now, every time I go somewhere and I see one, I buy one.”

Luptak said her collection has been mostly assembled by teapots she finds at rummage sales, or that she received as gifts. With the teapot room now filled to near capacity, though, Luptak may have a new dilemma.

“I’m not getting any more,” she said with a laugh. “That’s what it’s coming to, because I don’t have any more room left.”